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Jim
Bunkelman, Producer
Astraea^Bluejay
Young, Interviewee
Oure Gaiya^Jazz,
Interviewer
Aynetal3^Corey,
Transcriber
Jazz: Hi and welcome to Multiplicity 101. This is the official
podcast of the
Plural Activism
Awareness Group. My name is Jazz,
a proud member of Oure Gaiya, and I will be your host for today. This is our first in a series of podcasts
focusing on Multiplicity, also referred to as Plurality. Our definition of being Multiple is very
simple: Many minds that share one body.
We say minds instead of people because some Multiple groups have members who are
not human beings. I promise we will
discuss this in greater detail in a later episode. We know our listeners are very curious about
Multiplicity and have many questions.
For now though, we would like to limit each episode to just a few questions
at a time. If you have a specific
question you’d like addressed feel free to send them to us at the email given
at the end of this broadcast and we will address them in a future podcast.
Our guest for today’s broadcast is Bluejay Young -- a member of a
Multiple system, Astraea. They run a
website that provides information on both the psychiatric and independent
Multiple experiences. Hello Jay, and welcome
to Multiplicity 101.
Jay: Thank you for having me.
Jazz: My first question for you today is
regarding the image of Multiplicity especially by the Medical community, but by
society as a whole too. Many people
think that being Multiple is a mental illness and that you need to be in
therapy to fix your problems. What are your thoughts on this?
Jay: Well, the idea of it -- being Multiple as
an illness or something that is wrong may be a Western cultural notion. You’ll often hear that diagnoses of MPD are
unique to North America, and this often used as an argument for saying that it
doesn’t exist, or that it is imagined by sensation-seeking professionals that
foist it on their clients. But first of
all, MPD is recognized in Europe as a mental disorder for which you can seek
professional help if you feel it is necessary.
It’s in the International
classification of diseases as F44.81.
But, is Multiple Personality always a mental disorder?
That’s what we’ve questioned since we first recognized ourselves as Multiple in
1987. It’s simply not true that all
Multiples are basket-cases. Truddi Chase and her Troops, who wrote When
Rabbit Howls, experienced full-on Multiplicity with blackouts and amnesia
and switching and they were functioning very well. They owned their own commercial real estate
business. Later they worked as a legal
secretary and a commercial artist. If
that could happen, Multiples like ourselves who don’t experience the
traditional blackouts or amnesia and who do have successful communication could
function all right in the everyday world as well. And this is what we have found to be the case
for many many systems out there whether they are diagnosed by a doctor and have
classic MPD/DID, or are self-recognized, self-monitoring groups like ourselves.
Jazz: [Mmhmm.] Ok, well my next question for you
is two-fold. There’s been considerable
controversy about Multiplicity. People just don’t want to believe it. How do you feel about this and what are some
ways we can convince people that our experience is real?
Jay: Well there is always going to be people
who refuse to believe that it’s real.
They can’t understand -- perhaps, they are afraid to understand, how
several separate minds can coexist in one body.
You’ll hear them repeat "one body one personality", or,
"one brain one personality" – it’s a mantra to them. And meanwhile, the brain-mind experts are
saying -- No, that is not necessarily the case. Personality itself is really a social
construct and isn’t medically verifiable.
And, that is true for single people, not just plurals. You can’t put a voltmeter between your ears
and [muffled laughter.] measure personality.
Jazz: [Mmhmm.]
Jay: The closest they have been to empirical
proof are some brain scans, which appear to show that the brain waves of
Multiples change as different people in the group take the front – that is take
charge of and use the body. There were other
tests and studies in the planning stages, but in the mid-1990’s there were a
number of scandals within the American Psychiatric
Association about over-diagnosis and over-hyping of the sensational aspects
and this caused a retrenchment in which Multiple Personality was completely
discredited.
Jazz: [Mmhmm.]
Jay: And that’s when it got the name change to
dissociative identity disorder.
Professionals were actually being fired from clinics [muffled] for
diagnosing their patients with DID. And,
at the same time, these people who were doing the neurological studies on
Multiple Personality lost their funding and were unable to complete those
tests.
Now you ask, “How it can be proved -- how can we let people know
our experience is real?” The key to
telling people anything whether you are selling merchandise, or have a message
to get out is promotion. Talk about it;
get it out in the open, on a web site or a blog, social media and print, and
yes print newsletters and the alternative press are still in existence. Get it out anyway you can -–
Jazz: Yes.
Jay: -- comment in news articles, letters to
the editor. If you are out Multiple, even as something as simple as wearing a
t-shirt or a button with a Multiple-related slogan on it – you can write a
book, and self-publish it. And, if you
are in the closet, as we are, there are still many opportunities to get the
word out that we are out here. It’s just
like the Gay-rights movement. Before Gay
Pride, before Harvey Milk,
they had secret societies like the Mattachine society. Being Gay at that time was illegal --
Jazz: [Mmhmm.]
Jay: -- and could land you in jail or mental hospital,
so people used initials or pseudonyms, but they could and did communicate about
their experience.
Now, you ask how we can convince people that it’s real. It’s tough to convince anyone who isn’t
already aware that Multiple Personality is real, or that it exists
independently of psychiatry as a mental disorder. People will have to find out
for themselves. So, the best thing to do
is to keep talking about it. There are people out there who do not realize that
what they are experiencing is Multiplicity.
If you can even reach one person, or one group, and help them to see
that successful Multiples exist –
Jazz: [Yes.]
Jay: That we are not all basket-cases. We don’t all have to integrate. Not every case is like Sybil.
Jazz: [Right.]
Jay: You can consider yourselves to have succeeded.
Jazz: Wonderful.
Wonderful. Ok, one last question for
today’s podcast. What is your answer to
people who ask how it is possible for several minds to co-exist in one body? We personally have heard our existence
dismissed on the basis of it being impossible.
To have a bunch of little people running around inside a single body. [muffled
laughter.]
Jay: Well this reminds me of a discussion group
that I used to be on in the early 1990’s.
This is pre-Internet – this is back in the days of the BBS [computer
bulletin board systems].
Jazz: [Mmhmm.]
Jay: A Multiple group that we knew of at that
time was running one of these BBS discussions – had to go in for a brain scan
for other reasons. I mean they were
having migraine headaches. And, we were
all joking about – that’s how you know if somebody is Multiple, you do a brain
scan. And, she came back and she said,
“Well the scan didn’t show a bunch of people waving.” [laughter.]
Anyway – no, but we’ve heard several explanations for that. Of course, the most popular one with mental
health professionals is that it is really just one mind that perceives itself,
for whatever reason, as any different independent minds. They think you should treat the client as a collection
of parts that have fragmented; split apart, shattered, and need –
Jazz: [Mmhmm.]
Jay: -- to be glued back together. And, I’m
not saying there aren’t Multiples like that, because I know there are. But having several actual independent minds
we’ve heard a lot of ideas. Truddi Chase
and the Troops experienced an initial split of their birth person into two
cores. But, then these existing minds
gave birth -- to many more new minds.
Now, why can’t a mind do that without a traumatic split being involved? Maybe
minds are like bodies. Some people are
born twins, or triplets, or quintuplets.
Jazz: [Mmhmm.]
Jay: Maybe several minds can be born together.
Jazz: [Indeed, Yes - Yes.]
Jay: And, some people have a more spiritual explanation.
They think it is related to channeling.
It could be spirits from the next life.
They think it might be aliens, like the “walk-in theory.” We’ve heard
all these things. And, we don’t have a
firm idea ourselves of what makes it possible.
Now, we see ourselves as a “Gateway system.” We think there is another world or dimension
where all of us live, and then we access this body to do things here. But, that is our subjective experience. We feel it is real, but we know there is no convincing
anyone. And, this probably sounds really
out there to all but a handful of people that are listening to this right now. The
whole thing could be imaginal for all we know.
That is, it is real to us, but it’s not physical, and there is never
going to be any evidence. That is the
closest that you can come to explaining any of it. It is a person’s experience. It is the group’s experience. But, what other people – other people have to
take it for granted – take your word for it. And, that’s something that a lot
of people today are simply not willing to do.
Jazz: Or, are unable to do. Ok, thank you. Thank you for listening to Multiplicity 101. We’d like to thank our producer, Jim Bunkelman, for
helping to make these podcasts a reality [support expressed.] We also want to
be sure and thank today’s guest, Bluejay
Young of Astraea for being a vital part of our podcast, and you our
listeners for tuning in. You can be a guest
on a future edition of Multiplicity 101. If you are interested in contributing to the
show, contact us. Our email address is
101@aspenpatch.com. That’s aspen like
the tree and patch – all one word. In
addition, if you have any questions or comments, please email them to us also.
Come join our discussion group on Yahoo at Plural_Activism. To support this group, please visit our shop
at Cafepress.com at Plural
Pride.
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